Natalie Kerres
From jewellery design to tackling the global challenge of life quality and longevity
From jewellery design to tackling the global challenge of life quality and longevity
Inspired by nature, SCALED is an interlocking ‘scale-like’ material that can be 3D printed to create flexible body armour with application in sports, medical orthotics and work-safety.
Its creator, Natalie Kerres, started out as a jeweller before moving into multidisciplinary design, engineering and research. Studying Global Innovation Design at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, she became passionate about solving real world problems through new technologies with a human-centred approach.
She says: “During the programme I focused on the global challenge of healthy ageing and how to close the gap of life quality and longevity – SCALED was born.”
But her early background as a jeweller has created some barriers. “People believe that I come solely from Arts and Design. When I coded the initial algorithm for SCALED, it was difficult to prove and convince investors and panels that the ‘tech person’ in the company was actually me.”
Natalie is ambitious for the future of SCALED and sees the Innovate UK Woman in Innovation award as an important part of that journey. “I hope to take SCALED to the next level. Our mission is to protect, prevent and predict injuries to the human body before they happen.”
